Color Does Not Define Beauty
#KUTISPINAS
End Colorism
PURPOSE OF THIS CAMPAIGN
. This campaign is a response to the Skin whitening companies that are bluntly showing people that they are commodifying our insecurities. Denormalize the colonial mentality considering the fact that not all Filipinos are born “mestizo” especially the native ones. By letting this culture prevail, discrimination towards those with darker skin will continue.
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We are still damaged by colonial mentality. We need to construct a decolonized culture, and communicating about flashpoint topics enables the change. With the influence of the media, we should stop falsely showcasing a mindset whereas one's beauty is measured upon their skin color. Colorism is a problem our country has been facing for years, although this issue was neglected to the point where it was normalized.
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White culture has robbed us tons of our ancient scripts, texts and rituals. We have to claim them back and make them our own again, including our color. Our brownness makes us unique, we should not rely our identity on colonial standards. We should embrace our own beauty and stop trying to fit ourselves on superficial and spurious beauty standards that was imposed to us by the society.
What can we DO
Educate the people especially students regarding this topic and cultivate the history of colorism and its stigma in to the educational system.
- Students should be educated about the Skin Color Stratification in the Philippines. Considering their age where the media mostly targets their insecurities, they should know the ideology of colorism and its history.
Remove skin-bleaching products high in mercury.
Use social media as the voice to end colorism.
- Skin whitening was romanticize and brain washed to people by the media that they would be much more “desirable” if they have lighter complexion, neglecting the fact that it brings a lot of risk factors in terms of their health and can change their perception of beauty. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)Trusted Source also issued a notice that over-the-counter (OTC) skin bleaching products are not recognized as safe and effective.
- Social media was the one who destroyed the perception of beauty to some, however we can still turn the tables around and use it to weaponize and spread the issue about colorism in order for it to be recognized and eventually become mainstream. And also stop
Colorism in the Philippine Media
Filipinos had normalize the mentality where the beauty is measured based on one’s skin color. The privilege lighter skinned people get than dark skinned people were evident in this society. Especially in the Philippine entertainment industry were almost every celebrity were whitewashed since it is the standard of beauty. Filipinos are desperate for validation among the foreign peers that's why we are trying to fit ourselves on the eurocentric idealized beauty which was imposed to us when we were colonized.
We are focusing on fitting on someone else's basis standard of beauty to the point where we neglected our own. We are basically losing our authenticity day by day.
Still today, one’s appearance, especially skin color, plays a tremendous role in one’s access to essential stuff, from necessities for life such as housing, food, and clothing, to social security and social welfare.
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Media plays a big role when it comes to influencing people. Notice how most celebrities glorify and present eurocentric beauty standard to the point where they do not look Filipino anymore? Not to mention that half of the entertainment industry were filled with mixed celebrities and most of the time they are the ones who are famous since they fit the beauty standards.
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Additional information about colorism
Skin Whitening Brands profiting off people's insecurities
Controversy sparked last 2019, the movement called #BoycottGlutaMax was taking over social media in regards of their marketing tactics that had a very offensive and colorist undertones in it.
As you can see, the advertisement claims that fair-skinned women are treated better than morenas in Philippine society.
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“#YourFairAdvantage.” The ad left a bad taste in the mouth overall because not only did the company reinforce negative cultural attitudes to profit from them, it also assumed the public to be stupid and unable to see through their ploy.
GlutaMAX’s strategy was to play up people’s insecurities stemming from the colonial experience that normalized colorism, or valuing one skin color above others.
Good intention but badly executed. A skin whitening brand in the Philippines is now under fire for using "brownface" in an advertisement.
Skin White's intention was to spread out a message that ‘Dark or White is Beautiful’ by featuring twins, Marianne and Martha Bibal.
What’s even more controversial was that one of the models used in the campaign isn’t naturally brown-skinned at all. Apparently, she was just made up or edited to look like so.
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This, of course, added fuel to the fire.
Why is this campaign important?
This campaign's main objective is to denormalize colorism. Big platforms such as Skin Whitening Brands are given the power to INFLUENCE. Thus, resulting for people to be persuaded and believe what they showcase.
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It perpetuates damaging stereotypes that white complexion is better than dark complexion. This mindset is a manifestation of colorism, an attitude that privileges white or pale skin over dark skin.
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Colorism is manifested in a way morenas are seen as ugly or undesirable, resulting them for being treated like an outcast.
By employing Caucasan-looking models, these skin whitening brands are complicit in reifying colonial mentality.
This is why this campaign was created. In order to end colorism and stop the exclusion of dark skin in advertisement campaigns.
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This is why this campaign was created. In order to end colorism and stop the exclusion of dark skin in advertisement campaigns.
This campaign's main objective is to end colorism. Big platforms such as Skin Whitening Brands are given the power to INFLUENCE. Thus, resulting for people to be persuaded and believe what they showcase.
​
It perpetuates damaging stereotypes that white complexion is better than dark complexion. This mindset is a manifestation of colorism, an attitude that privileges white or pale skin over dark skin.
​
​
Colorism is manifested in a way morenas are seen as ugly or undesirable, resulting them for being treated like an outcast.
By employing Caucasan-looking models, these skin whitening brands are complicit in reifying colonial mentality.
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